Advice needed on my new computer

I am a first time builder and i am still trying to figure out a great way to build a desktop computer that will not lag, freeze so often, become too slow when many windows are opened, and so on. i mainly want to use this computer for gaming, video entertainment/editing, graphics design, watching movies, and suffering the web without any implications, but also within a budget of $900-$1300.

Here's what i have planned to order:

GIGABYTE GA-EP45T-UD3P LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard

XIGMATEK Dark Knight-S1283V 120mm Long Life Bearing CPU Cooler

XIGMATEK ACK-I7753 Retention Bracket For 4 heatpipes model only

Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 Power Supply

LG Black 22X (CAV) DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 16X DVD+R DL 22X (CAV) DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA 22X DVD±R DVD Burner

POWERCOLOR AX4890 1GBD5-UH Radeon HD 4890 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 CrossFire Supported Video Card

Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD6400AAKS 640GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Hard Drive

Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound

And last but not least
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory
now i am not sure if this is the correct Ram could you guys help be find the right one? Thanks

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Reply to Tony Tone

I don't see a cpu in there...if its an e dualcore processor i recommend you buy an amd 720...just go look at the benchmarks...it rivals and beats the 8xxx series for quite a lot less cash

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Reply to rewindlabs

DDR3 memory is pretty much wasted on a C2D or C2Q CPU.

rewindlabs, if he selected an Intel motherboard, he needs an Intel CPU.

Tony, a better way to do this is to post your budget and primary purpose of the computer. In a mid-range system, AMD has some advantages.

From your list:
Hard drive - $5 more gets you the faster WD6401AALS.

I have an Antec 900. Even with all of its warts, I really like it. One of its warts (a small one) is that it does not come with a system speaker. And the Gigabyte motherboard does not have a piezo beeper built in.

Suggestions on how to apply thermal compound to an HDT cooler:
http://benchmarkreviews.com/index. [...] mitstart=5

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Reply to jsc

Tony Tone wrote :

XIGMATEK Dark Knight-S1283V 120mm Long Life Bearing CPU Cooler

XIGMATEK ACK-I7753 Retention Bracket For 4 heatpipes model only

The Dark Knight comes with back plate.

AMD Phenom II quad is better bang for the buck.

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------------------------------ 24 threads @ 4GHz
Reply to theAnimal

rewindlabs wrote :

I don't see a cpu in there...if its an e dualcore processor i recommend you buy an amd 720...just go look at the benchmarks...it rivals and beats the 8xxx series for quite a lot less cash

Thank you for your help buddy

Reply to Tony Tone

jsc wrote :

DDR3 memory is pretty much wasted on a C2D or C2Q CPU.

rewindlabs, if he selected an Intel motherboard, he needs an Intel CPU.

Tony, a better way to do this is to post your budget and primary purpose of the computer. In a mid-range system, AMD has some advantages.

From your list:
Hard drive - $5 more gets you the faster WD6401AALS.

I have an Antec 900. Even with all of its warts, I really like it. One of its warts (a small one) is that it does not come with a system speaker. And the Gigabyte motherboard does not have a piezo beeper built in.

Suggestions on how to apply thermal compound to an HDT cooler:
http://benchmarkreviews.com/index. [...] mitstart=5

thank you so much for the help. i think this motherboard supports ddr3 and what sucks is that the max gbs of ram i can upgrade to is 8gbs. do you have any other suggestions?

Reply to Tony Tone

theAnimal wrote :

The Dark Knight comes with back plate.

AMD Phenom II quad is better bang for the buck.

Thank you for informing me

Reply to Tony Tone

I'm not the best at suggesting hardware till iv done a huge amount of research on the build but anyways yes just because he listed an intel board does not mean he needs and intel cpu as well...we are here to suggest and help :sarcastic:

Anways yeah i believe 8gbs should be more than enough :heink: unless your doing a whoooolllleee lotta work....

Anways yeah stay with a board the will support the new ddr3 ram i guess and start off with 4gbs along with a 720...you can always upgrade to the 4ghz quad monster known as the 955

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] (keywords)

Yeah imagine that thing :sweat: so much power...poor x2

Anways a tri core should be more than enough for your needs well into a few years and by that time all of these cpus will have come down in price and you can get some sweet deals on going quad core

Reply to rewindlabs

Don't get the Powercolor HD 4890. The only reason you really should be getting the 4890 is for its huge overclock and improved fan (less noise). Well, Powercolor 4890s come with a terrible overclock, and the cards I've gotten make an annoying whine (called "coil whine" ) whenever its under load. I would know. I ordered one, RMA'd it for another, and got nearly the same product back.

People talk about getting the 4890 to maybe 970 GPU clocks, and 1150+ memory clocks? Well, grab a powercolor and don't expect to get past 900/1050 unless you're going to volt-mod that thing. Even then, I couldn't push my 4890(s) past 970/1130.

That gigabyte board has crossfire capabilities: might want try your hand at two 4770s, which matches the performance of the 4890 all across the board.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] WD6401AALS

Yeah, that hard drive is probably a better choice. The double cache will make some difference.

Good luck with your build.

For ram, this is what I have: gives you a bit of room for overclocks, and it has decent timings.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820227298

Complaining about 8 gigabytes? I'm not sure you're going to need much more than 8 gigabytes for... anything really. I don't know what you're planning to do with your computer, but I'm not sure 8 gigabytes is necessarily a handicap here.

For a CPU, because your budget is pretty damn big, and you have an intel board,
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819115041

Intel Core 2 Quad q9550 @ 2.83ghz. I got this to 3.83ghz on that same motherboard with unbelievable ease. 4 ghz is probably possible, but that'll take a little bit more work.

If you don't need four cores and would rather have faster clock speeds, or if you want to save a hundred bucks:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819115037

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 @ 3.00 ghz. People report overclocking this to 4 ghz *easily.* That'll run your games.

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Reply to mlcloud

mlcloud wrote :

Don't get the Powercolor HD 4890. The only reason you really should be getting the 4890 is for its huge overclock and improved fan (less noise). Well, Powercolor 4890s come with a terrible overclock, and the cards I've gotten make an annoying whine (called "coil whine" ) whenever its under load. I would know. I ordered one, RMA'd it for another, and got nearly the same product back.

People talk about getting the 4890 to maybe 970 GPU clocks, and 1150+ memory clocks? Well, grab a powercolor and don't expect to get past 900/1050 unless you're going to volt-mod that thing. Even then, I couldn't push my 4890(s) past 970/1130.

That gigabyte board has crossfire capabilities: might want try your hand at two 4770s, which matches the performance of the 4890 all across the board.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] WD6401AALS

Yeah, that hard drive is probably a better choice. The double cache will make some difference.

Good luck with your build.

For ram, this is what I have: gives you a bit of room for overclocks, and it has decent timings.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820227298

Complaining about 8 gigabytes? I'm not sure you're going to need much more than 8 gigabytes for... anything really. I don't know what you're planning to do with your computer, but I'm not sure 8 gigabytes is necessarily a handicap here.

For a CPU, because your budget is pretty damn big, and you have an intel board,
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819115041

Intel Core 2 Quad q9550 @ 2.83ghz. I got this to 3.83ghz on that same motherboard with unbelievable ease. 4 ghz is probably possible, but that'll take a little bit more work.

If you don't need four cores and would rather have faster clock speeds, or if you want to save a hundred bucks:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819115037

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 @ 3.00 ghz. People report overclocking this to 4 ghz *easily.* That'll run your games.

wow thank you. you and everyone who has gave me great info. i have one question for you on one of advices i received, it said, that an AMD core quad would be also a good choice to make for this build. is it true.

Reply to Tony Tone

+1 for the E8400. I just built my new rig based on that CPU and the Gigabyte EP45-UD3R Mobo. You won't be disappointed with it. Also the Xiggy Dark Knight DOES come with the backplate so don't buy another one(it looks sweet with it's white leds in my case. The Antec 900 is a great case with great airflow(I have one). You could also save a little cash get this board which is the same as the one you picked out except it uses DDR2 memory and not DDR3: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813128358 .
As far as DDR2 memory I suggest Gskill Pi, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820231174 . the Power supply you chose is excellent. As far as GPU goes I would go with a 1gb 4870.

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Message edited by jalpaugh1978 on 05-11-2009 at 07:12:00 AM

------------------------------ AMD Phenom II X2 550(quad unlocked)w/Tuniq Tower 120 Extreme/GIGABYTE GA-MA770-UD3/4GB G.Skill DDR2 1066/EVGA GTX260 216 SC/Samsung SP F3 500GB/Creative SB X-Fi XGamer/PC P&C Silencer 750W/CM 690 II Basic/Windows 7 Ult x64/Acer X223w LCD
Reply to jalpaugh1978

Tony, AMD builds are generally cheaper, and low to middle-high range, they can trade blows with all of the Core 2 Series in terms of performance... at slightly higher clock rates.

For example, a Phenom II 955 clocked at 3.0ghz will lose out in most cases to a Core 2 Quad q9650, running at the same 3.0ghz speed.

Message quoted 1 times

Reply to mlcloud

jalpaugh1978 wrote :

+1 for the E8400. I just built my new rig based on that CPU and the Gigabyte EP45-UD3R Mobo. You won't be disappointed with it. Also the Xiggy Dark Knight DOES come with the backplate so don't buy another one(it looks sweet with it's white leds in my case. The Antec 900 is a great case with great airflow(I have one). You could also save a little cash get this board which is the same as the one you picked out except it uses DDR2 memory and not DDR3: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813128358 .
As far as DDR2 memory I suggest Gskill Pi, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820231174 . the Power supply you chose is excellent. As far as GPU goes I would go with a 1gb 4870.

Yes! this motherboard is way cooler, right? i thought that i would stay with ddr3 board. thank you so much.

Reply to Tony Tone

mlcloud wrote :

Tony, AMD builds are generally cheaper, and low to middle-high range, they can trade blows with all of the Core 2 Series in terms of performance... at slightly higher clock rates.

For example, a Phenom II 955 clocked at 3.0ghz will lose out in most cases to a Core 2 Quad q9650, running at the same 3.0ghz speed.

yah i think i'll go with an AMD core quad. i hope it'll work.

Reply to Tony Tone

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